In recent years considerable attention has been directed to the provision of comestible spreads resembling margarine but having reduced fat and caloric content. By government regulation, a "margarine" product must contain at least 80% fat by weight. Margarines comprise a water phase and an oil phase which are emulsified. Margarines generally are in the form of a water-in-oil emulsion. The taste of margarines and low fat edible spreads is due mostly to water soluble flavors, oil soluble flavors, and salt included in the water phase. The release of the water soluble flavors and salt from the encapsulating oil phase provides to the consumer a burst of flavor customarily associated with these products. The amount of flavor burst the consumer perceives is primarily a function of the droplet size of the encapsulated water phase. A very tight water-in-oil emulsion with a relatively small water phase droplet size yields a small flavor burst while a more loose emulsion with a larger encapsulated water droplet size generally provides a larger flavor burst. In the prior art, low calorie spreads, "functional" ingredients are often added to control droplet size. Thus, proteins from dairy sources, such as whey powder or non-fat dry milk solids, are commonly used to destabilize the emulsion and to counteract the effect of added emulsifying agents to thus increase the droplet size of the water phase and increase the flavor burst.
Moreover, prior art processes for producing low fat edible spreads resembling margarine generally used the same equipment as margarine processes and consisted of multiple scrape-surface heat exchangers and pin-working units as described in Bailey's Industrial Oil and Fat Product, 3rd Edition, pp. 344-349. Equipment of this type involves considerable capital expenditure, residence times which are relatively lengthy, and substantial energy and/or operating costs.
It is a principal object of this invention, therefore, to provide improved low calorie spreads closely resembling margarine in appearance, texture and mouthfeel which can be produced in an economical manner.
It is a further object of this invention to produce in a simple manner, low calorie spreads having rheological, textural and flavor release characteristics similar to margarine with considerably reduced fat content from margarine.